POS9-0156
Marine-Inspired Hydrogel Platform for Energy-Efficient Carbon Removal and Aragonite Recovery
When and Where
Nov 30, -0001
12:00am - 12:00am
Presenter(s)
Jeongsik Park (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Anthropogenic carbon emissions necessitate scalable carbon removal strategies to mitigate global warming and ocean acidification. Current approaches, however, face significant energy and sustainability hurdles; amine-functionalized sorbents for direct air capture (DAC) suffer from high regeneration temperatures and humidity sensitivity, whereas ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) risks localized pH spikes and runaway mineralization. Drawing inspiration from marine invertebrates that spatially confine chemical microenvironments for biomineralization, we present a novel hydrogel platform integrating hydrolyzable amines with calcium-binding carboxylates. Within this system, controlled hydrolysis releases alkalinity in stoichiometric synchrony with localized Ca2+ enrichment, driving efficient aragonite precipitation directly at the gel-seawater interface. This hydrogel exhibits a superior CO2 sequestration capacity, significantly outperforming state-of-the-art DAC benchmarks such as amine-functionalized covalent organic frameworks. By fundamentally bypassing the thermal CO2 regeneration and gas compression cycles required in conventional DAC, our system achieves a substantial inherent net-negative carbon balance without relying on renewable energy inputs—a milestone largely unattainable by existing technologies. Furthermore, the hydrogel demonstrates excellent recyclability through the facile replenishment of renewable amines, coupled with the mechanical robustness needed to withstand repeated detachment and reuse cycles. Ultimately, this study validates the use of renewable nitrogen feedstocks as a highly feasible and scalable pathway for simultaneous carbon removal and high-value aragonite recovery.
